1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to mobile communication technologies, and more particularly, to wireless communication systems for performing machine type communication data transmissions using a gateway and a relay node and related data processing methods.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a typical mobile communication environment, a user equipment (UE) may communicate voice and/or data signals with one or more service networks via cellular stations (or referred to as evolved Node-Bs (eNBs)) of service networks. The wireless communications between the UE and the service networks may be in compliance with various wireless technologies, such as the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) technology, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology, an enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) technology, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) technology, Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA 2000) technology, Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) technology, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) technology, Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, and others. Particularly, in a service network in compliance with the WCDMA or LTE technology, a special cellular station, called a Home Node-B (HNB), or Home e-Node-B (HeNB) is used, which is typically designed to improve wireless reception quality of service networks for indoor coverage, such as in a home or in a small business space.
Moreover, in current LTE wireless communication systems, in addition to normal human-to-human (H2H) communications, machine type communications (MTC) are also provided. MTC is Machine-to-Machine communications, which is also referred to as the Internet of Things (TOT), of which the main concept is to connect real world objects to the Internet via the embedded short range mobile transceiver using radio-frequency identification (RFID) for automatic recognition and information interconnection and sharing for all of the objects.
When MTC is deployed by the service network, a lot of MTC applications can be used indoors, such as for automatic metering, automatic monitoring, etc. These applications can be applied to the cellular service networks, such as the LTE, the GSM, or the CDMA network. Alternatively, data needed for the MTC applications can also be transmitted via short distance wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, WiFi, and infrared wireless technologies, and so on. In addition, when the MTC is deployed outdoors, such as in rural areas, the uplink coverage for each MTC device may be limited since most MTC device has low radio frequency (RF) capabilities. To improve uplink coverage, one node of a wireless communication system may utilize one or more relay nodes to communicate with another node of the wireless communication system. The uplink coverage can be extended through the relay nodes. In current relay node deployment, however, each MTC device that is coupled to a relay node has to maintain a responsive connection on the interface between the MTC device and the relay node to transmit required data to the service network through the relay node. For example, if there are three MTC devices attempting to transmit MTC data, three responsive connections should be maintained over the interface between the MTC devices and the relay node. As the amount of MTC devices increases, the signaling load over the interface also increases.
So there needs a method to prevent the air interface from being blocked up in the art.